This season of "Shaq Vs." sees basketball great Shaquille O'Neal step into all kinds of other rings

Between 1993 and 1994, Michael Jordan retired from basketball and tried his hand at a pro baseball career. Last year, Shaquille O'Neal went one better and decided to try his hand at, well, everything.

O'Neal returns this summer for a second season of "Shaq Vs.," Tuesday evenings on ABC, in which the NBA legend challenges professionals and champions to face off against him in their chosen fields. Last season, the focus was on athletics as he faced folks such as world champion swimmer Michael Phelps, boxer Oscar de la Hoya, and Olympic volleyball gold medalists Misty May-Treanor and Kerri Walsh.

This season, however, the scope has widened. "I'm out to prove that I can compete beyond athletics," O'Neal said. "I've spent all year sharpening my skills and I want to win. There's no challenge bigger than me."

So far this summer, Shaq has already challenged NASCAR driver Dale Earnhardt Jr., national spelling bee champion Kavya Shivashankar, boxer "Sugar" Shane Mosley, and illusionists Penn & Teller. Among those on the roster for the rest of the season are an eat-off against hot dog-eating champion Joey Chestnut, a cook-off against daytime host and food author Rachel Ray, and what will presumably be a sing-and-dance-off versus teen song-and-dance juggernaut Justin Bieber.

This jack-of-all-trades theme of his goes beyond "Shaq Vs.," though.  Besides his claim to fame as an NBA superstar -- currently the oldest active player in the NBA, actually -- O'Neal has ventured into film, though not exactly successfully, with such flops as 1996's "Kazaam" and 2006's "Scary Movie 4." He also has four rap albums under his belt, and his first, 1993's "Shaq Diesel," even received platinum status.

Then, of course, there are the video games, and not only NBA games, either. Oddly enough, he's a character in the unlikely titles "Delta Force: Black Hawk Down" and "UFC 2010 Undisputed," and even appears as a boxer in "Ready 2 Rumble Boxing: Round 2." These last two games may have something to do with Shaq's love of ring sports, as he's even taken on mixed martial arts training in the last few years.

Shaquille O'Neal and NASCAR legend Dale Earnhardt Jr. hit the track on "Shaq Vs."

"Shaq Vs." isn't even O'Neal's first foray into reality television. His first reality gig was ESPN's "Shaquille," which only aired for one season in 2005. It followed his life on the court during his first season with the Miami Heat, and his life off the court with his children and now-estranged wife Shaunie Nelson.

After that came "Shaq's Big Challenge," a sort of "Biggest Loser"-style weight-loss challenge for a group of obese middle school children, in which O'Neal ultimately slimmed down every youngster. Each child was able to pass the President's Physical Fitness Test in all areas by the end of the series. It was received well by critics, parents and teachers alike, but did poorly in the ratings since it faced competition from hits such as "America's Got Talent" and "House."

His long and varied resume goes beyond the basketball and entertainment industries, however. When he was drafted into the NBA, he was only in his third year of college at Louisiana State University. When he left, he promised his mother that he would return for his degree some day, and he did just that in 2000, completing his studies to earn a bachelor of arts degree in general studies. He took it a step further and received an MBA from the University of Phoenix in 2005.

And, who knows, maybe his next television venture will have him follow in the footsteps of Steven Seagal, who had been a reserve deputy sheriff before embarking on his own reality series, "Steven Seagal: Lawman." Shaq himself went through the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Reserve Academy to become a reserve officer with the L.A. Port Police. He also earned the honorary title of U.S. deputy marshal in 2005, and served as spokesman for the organization's Safe Surfin' Foundation.

Television seems to be a sort of family affair for O'Neal, as his ex-wife Nelson has parlayed her experience as the wife of an NBA player into "Basketball Wives," which premiered this spring on VH1. The show is a "Real Housewives"-esque reality series that follows women who are, or have been, romantically involved with professional basketball players.

As far as his original passion goes, O'Neal played with the Cleveland Cavaliers in 2009-2010, but suffered a severe thumb injury and was forced to undergo surgery and miss a decent portion of the season. Shaq spent the summer as a free agent before signing with the Boston Celtics.